The Connection Between Yinyang Baguazhang, Baguazhang , and
Xinyi LiuhequanYan Zhiyuan, June 2007

Translated by Joshua
Capitanio

Over the course of my many years of research into martial arts
and martial arts history, I have more and more come to realize that the
difference between Yinyang Baguazhang (Yinyang Bapanzhang) and Baguazhang
resembles the difference between Dai family Xinyiquan and Xingyiquan. Baguazhang
was an innovation developed on the basis of Yinyang Bapanzhang by its creator
Dong Haichuan 董海川 (1816-1882) just as Xingyiquan was an innovation based on Dai
family Xinyiquan (Guo Weihan 郭维瀚 and Li Luoneng 李洛能 [1807-1888] were the
creators of Xingyiquan).

The name “Yinyang Bapanzhang” comes from the
great Yinyang Baguazhang teacher Ren Zhicheng 任致诚 (1878-1967), of the remote
Beidou Li Village in Wen’an County, Hebei. When Ren saw Sun Xikun’s 孙锡坤 book
“Baguazhang zhen chuan ,” published in Tianjin in 1937, he thought that it
showed some similarities with the Yinyang Baguazhang that he practiced, and it
seemed like both styles shared a common root. In order to avoid confusion
between the two styles, he published a book in 1937, at his own expense,
entitled “Yinyang Bapanzhang.” Ren Zhicheng’s senior classmate Xiao Haibo 肖海波
was the teacher of Cheng Yougong 程友功 (the second son of Cheng Tinghua 程廷华, who
studied with Xiao Haibo after Cheng Tinghua died when he was still very young),
whose students to this day still call their art by its original name, Yinyang
Baguazhang .

Note: Ren Zhicheng had three elder classmates. The most
senior was Liu Baozhen 刘宝珍 (1861-1922), from Hongsi Village, Gu’an County. Liu
Baozhen also studied later with Dong Haichuan, when Dong was in his later years.
Xiao Haibo (1863-1954) was the second senior, and the third senior was Ren
Shunan 任树南 from Liangzhao in Renqiu County. The first two had already left their
teacher before Ren Zhicheng began studying with him. According to accounts, Ren
Shunan’s skill was the most well-developed (he had learned before Ren Zhicheng,
Ren Zhizhong任致忠, and Ren Zhihe 任致和); unfortunately, he never passed it
on.

Guo Zhenya 郭振亚, whose lineage is from senior disciple Liu Baozhen,
published his book “Bagua Saber” in 1983, in which, describing its history, he
states: “This saber method was passed down by the famous teacher Liu Baozhen, of
Gu’an in Hebei, to Guo Mengshen 郭梦深, who passed it to his elder son Guo Zhenya,
and thus has been preserved until now. Liu Baozhen studied under the Baguazhang
masters Dong Haichuan and Li Zhenqing 李振清, thus obtaining the true transmission.
He integrated the essential saber methods of both teachers, developing this
unique and innovative ‘Bagua Saber’ method into a form, and contributing to the
richness of Chinese martial arts.”

Liu Baozhen, having also studied with
Dong Haichuan, thus differed somewhat from Ren Zhicheng’s line of Yinyang
Baguazhang . Also, because Liu became Dong’s student while Dong was in his later
years, at which time Liu already was adept at the practice of Yinyang Baguazhang
, his Baguazhang has a very different style from the Baguazhang of Dong’s other
disciples (most of whom, before learning Baguazhang from Dong, had practiced
external styles).

After leaving his teacher, Xiao Haibo in 1881 became
known in Beijing for his “four foot two inch [~1.3m] Bapan Saber” (given to him
by Li Zhenqing), where he met a certain Chen Pu 陈仆, visiting Beijing from Wen
County in Henan. The two of them practiced boxing together and discovered that
they practiced the same style. At that time, Chen Pu was already in his
eighties, so he must have learned this boxing style twenty or thirty years
before Li Zhenqing began studying. When Xiao Haibo met Chen Pu, Chen told him
that the person, who had previously taught Baguazhang in secret in Henan, had
relocated to the “slopes of Jehol,” [translator’s note: Jehol (Rehe) was the
site of a large anti-Manchurian and anti-Western uprising by a “Boxer” or White
Lotus-related sect, the Golden Elixir Bagua Sect, in 1891] causing Xiao to go
there and study Yinyang Baguazhang for eight more years.

Thus, Xiao
Haibo’s line is very similar to that of Ren Zhicheng, except that Xiao’s has
much more content.

Ren Zhicheng had two junior disciples, Zhao Tingzhi
赵廷之 and Su Jingtian苏景田, in Fanjiakou Village, Ba County, but it seems that he
never met them.

In 1890, at the age of sixteen, Ren Zhicheng, along with
his brothers Ren Zhizhong and Ren Zhihe, became a disciple of Li Zhenqing in
Weijiaying, Ba County, and they invited him to their village to teach. According
to both the branches of Ren Zhicheng and Xiao Haibo, Li Zhenqing was born around
1830 and practiced martial arts from a young age. His maternal uncle had been a
manager at a bodyguard company, and at the age of sixteen he became a bodyguard
himself, until the age of seventeen when he followed his uncle on an assignment
to Henan, and he gave up his position and apprenticed himself to a teacher,
learning the skills of Yinyang Baguazhang. After completing his studies and
before leaving his teacher, his teacher told him that, several years prior, a
certain man surnamed Dong from Zhujia Manor, Wen’an County, had studied this art
with him. If, in the future, Li had any questions, he could go to ask Dong. Li
Zhenqing gave up the bodyguardbusiness and traveled around, visiting friends
and acquaintances, and teaching in Gu’an, Renqiu, Wen’an, and Ba Counties in
Hebei. Li Zhenqing was said to have been able to jump up and catch birds with
extreme speed, and was well-known as “Sparrowhawk Li.” In 1900 he died under the
guns of the Eight-Nation Alliance’s armies, after joining up with the Boxers
(Yihetuan).

Xu Yusheng 许禹生, discussing Dong Haichuan in his writings, has
demonstrated clearly that when Dong first entered the capital, he was on a
mission to assassinate the Qing emperor; from this it is not difficult to see
why Dong and Li Zhenqing were unwilling to state the name of their teacher.
Thus, the claim to have “learned from a transcendent” is a type of code that
shows their conflicted feelings and difficult position. After the Republican era
began, when Ren Zhicheng was no longer concerned about retaliation from the Qing
government, he wrote about the origins of his style, claiming that, during the
Daoguang period (1820-1850), Dong Menglin 董梦麟 taught both Dong Haichuan and Li
Zhenqing, and that Li Zhenqing had taught the Ren brothers in his later years.
He also said that “this art had already been transmitted three generations when
it reached Dong Menglin.” From this we can tell that the first generation of
Yinyang Ba[gua/pan]zhang practitioners was around the Qianlong era
(1735-1796).

Dong Menglin of Henan could certainly have been from
Huaiqing (see my three articles “The Life and Origins of Tongbeiquan Founder
Dong Cheng,” “The Close Relationship Between Tongbiquan (Tongbeiquan) and Xinyi
Liuhequan,” and “Tongbei of Huaiqing Prefecture – The Source of all Martial
Arts”) and of the same clan as Dong Cheng 董成. On the basis of the boxing theory
developed by Dong Cheng in his later years, he could have developed Dong Cheng’s
“Horse Stance Double Pushing Palms” posture, turning the two knees inward,
making it into “Squeezing Horse Posture.” He also could have taken Dong Cheng’s
“Lesser Posture Steps” as his basic footwork pattern (calling it the “Fishscale
stepping”) and his [theory of] the 3x3=9 nodes (three basins and nine nodes) and
the triple dantian (the author has discovered that only Yinyang Bapanzhang
places the three dantian in the same place as Dong Cheng) as his basis and
created Yinyang Bapanzhang (Dong Cheng had previously created “Yinyang Eight
Step Hammer”). In this, he would have been taking a similar route as Ji
Longfeng, refining and specializing [these techniques], according to the
principle of “different songs performed with equal skill.”

Ren Zhicheng
said that Li Zhenqing had met his teacher in the Jiangnan region [generally
refers to S. China “south of the [Yangtze] river”], and Dong Haichuan’s
disciples also said that Dong had learned from a “yellow capped” Daoist priest
in Jiangnan. Now, in the Qing dynasty, people from Hebei could have considered
Henan [“south of the [Yellow] river”] as “Jiangnan.” In 1881, Xiao Haibo
encountered Chen Pu, visiting Beijing from Wen County in Henan, and they
discovered that they practiced the same style; moreover, a certain Liu Junwu
刘君武, visiting Tianjin in 1955, demonstrated a “Yinyang Baguazhang ” (exactly the
same as that passed down by Li Zhenqing) that he had learned from an old
bodyguard agency’s martial arts teacher in Henan. From this, we can surmise that
“Jiangnan” referred to Henan, which matches the accounts of those in Xiao
Haibo’s lineage; this is also a similar situation as Big Spear Liu Dekuan of
Hebei studying his “Six Roads Heavenly Pattern Lance” in Henan. It is also
difficult to deny the possibility that there may have been certain reasons for
them intentionally stating “Jiangnan” instead of “Henan.”

From these
accounts of Chen Pu and Liu Junwu learning in Henan, as well as Xiao Haibo going
to the “slopes of Jehol” to study Yinyang Baguazhang , we can see that this
Daoist who taught Yinyang Baguazhang in Henan not only passed it on to multiple
different students, but also quite possibly taught people associated with
anti-Qing secret societies. Examples such as Dong Haichuan’s student Ma Weiqi
马维祺 (known as “Coal Ma,” he often injured others when they fought) who learned a
deadly palm technique from a certain Mr. Sha (claimed by Dong Haichuan as
belonging to the same style), and the drunkard Zhang San 张三 (in 1872, Zhang, at
the age of twelve, met a stranger who taught him martial arts) who practiced
Inner Bagua, demonstrate that at that time there were many recluses and skilled
people such as Chen Pu and Liu Junwu who taught and practiced martial arts.
Those members of the anti-Qing society, the Golden Elixir Bagua Sect, with whom
Xiao Haibo practiced martial arts on “the slopes of Jehol” were probably also
quite numerous.

During the Qing, there were many expert martial artists
who were closely involved with the political struggles of the times, such as Li
Wencheng 李文成 and Lin Qing 林清 of the Tianli Sect (a branch of the Bagua Sect) who
lead an uprising that attacked the imperial palace in 1813, and the uprising
started by the Li Trigram branch of the Bagua Sect in the Linqing and Dongchang
areas of Shandong in 1824. There was also the Taiping Tianguo rebellion of 1851,
the Li Trigram uprising in 1861 in Xin and Qiu counties in western Shandong, the
Nian uprising in 1865 that spread on both sides of the Yellow River, the Golden
Elixir Bagua Sect’s rebellion in Jehol in 1891 and the Yihetuan uprising in
1900. The Bagua Sect used the practice of martial arts to establish connections
among the people, and among their boxing styles was Yinyang Baguazhang . Many
peasant movements like the Bagua Sect rose and fell; under such conditions, if
someone were to brazenly declare where they had learned martial arts, from what
person, and that it was called “Yinyang Baguazhang ,” this would certainly have
resulted in great difficulties in the transmission of the style and threatened
the lives of its practitioners. Yet, to claim that one had made up oneself the
skills passed on by one’s teacher goes against the traditional values of the
Chinese martial arts community.

We can compare this to the situation of
Qianzai Temple, where ninth generation Chen Village member Chen Wangting 陈王廷
studied Tongbeiquan, 13 Posture Soft hands, etc. along with his cousins Li Zhong
李仲 and Li Xin 李信 of Tang Village; later, when the Li brothers participated in
the peasant rebellion lead by Li Zicheng that was defeated by the Manchurian
Qing troops, the Qianzai Temple was also implicated and destroyed by the Qing
armies. Therefore, Chen Wangting never mentioned his connection to the Qianzai
Temple to his descendents and students, and nowadays the Chen family members
themselves are not aware of this bit of history, which has given rise to much
confusion. Only since the Li family documents were discovered in Tang village
are we now finally able to see clearly that the circumstances are the
same.

In the Qing period, participating in such uprisings was always a
capital offense. The fact that Dong Haichuan and Li Zhenqing would not openly
state their teacher’s name suggests that they may have had some involvement with
these anti-Qing secret societies. Yet both men stated that they had learned
their arts from another, rather than claiming to have created them, in
accordance with the moral values of martial society at the time.

When I
studied Yinyang Baguazhang (Bapanzhang) myself in Hebei, my teacher Liu (a
disciple of Ren Zhicheng) and all of Ren’s other students told me this same
story:

The founder of Yinyang Baguazhang was a member of an anti-Qing
secret society (whether it was Taiping Tianguo, Nian, or the Golden Elixir Bagua
Sect is unclear). Dong Haichuan had learned some martial arts in his hometown
when he was young. After coming of age, he left home to travel, and in Henan he
met this teacher of Yinyang Baguazhang , with whom he studied for many years.
Later, he was sent by these anti-Qing rebels to Beijing, with orders to
assassinate the Emperor. In search of an opportunity to get close to the Qing
Emperor, he castrated himself and became a eunuch in the household of Prince Su,
where he waited for his chance. Later, when it became clear that these societies
would not succeed, and because it was difficult to get close to the Emperor, he
abandoned his assassination plot. At that time, martial arts were popular in the
capital, and the Qing army employed martial artists as instructors, such as the
Wanzi army’s Hushen Camp,who employed Yang Banhou 杨班候; the Vanguard Camp,
which employed Liu Shijun 刘仕俊; and Yang Luchan 杨露禅, who taught the royal family.
Thus, when Dong’s martial arts skills were discovered in 1866, when he was
around fifty years old, he began taking students. Yet, in order to protect his
teacher’s identity and connections with the anti-Qing societies, he altered the
basic principle of the boxing style, disguising all of the key training methods
of Yinyang Baguazhang , taking eight movements from the martial arts such as
Bafanquan that he had studied in his hometown and arranging these movements
according to the fifth move of Yinyang Baguazhang , the “Earth Basin Posture
Circle Walking,” adding multiple repetitions. These eight movements were
performed while walking a circle; the footwork was the same, but the hand
movements were different; later, the movements were continually developed. Thus,
[what Dong taught] was different from the original Yinyang Baguazhang , and he
was able to stay true to his teachers and the anti-Qing societies (by not
passing on the true transmission of Yinyang Baguazhang ).

Note: The
Bafanzhang that Dong studied would have included the ‘Four Soft Roads’ and ‘Four
Hard Roads,’ from Dong Xianzhou 董宪周, of the Dong family hometown of Kaikou
Village, Ligongchuan, Ditoucun, Xiong County. The “New Gazette of Xiong County”
says of Dong Xianzhou that “his reputation was well known in the Heshuo region
[Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong ] and he had no less than a few hundred students”; he
was clearly a well-known martial arts teacher during the Xianfeng years
[1850-1861]. Dong Haichuan’s ancestral hometown was originally Hongdong County
in Shanxi, and in the early Ming his ancestors moved to Kaikou Village, and
another branch that moved from Kaikou to Zhujiawu and Ligongchuan also practiced
Three Roads Hongquan, Jingangquan, Xingmenquan, etc.

Dong Haichuan’s
innovative ability was certainly quite great. When he began teaching, “his
disciples, for the most part, already possessed previous training; he would
evaluate these students’ abilities and teach accordingly, taking their original
boxing techniques and making them conform with the requirements of Baguazhang ,
altering and absorbing them into Baguazhang .” (See Li Ziming’s “Baguazhang
mingjia yishi”) When passing on the essential teachings, he “recited them
orally, and when his disciples had figured out the principle, he would
demonstrate it for them himself.” (See Guo Gumin “Bagua quanshu jicheng”
p.20-21) This style of “when his disciples had figured out the principle,”
having them take the boxing techniques that they had already studied and
transform them in this fashion, resulted in many different combinations of
sixty-four palm techniques among his different disciples. Thus, already in the
firstgeneration of Dong Haichuan’s disciples there were different
systems.

For example, Yin Fu 尹福 had originally practiced Luohanquan.
Within the baguaquan that his disciple Gong Baotian 宫保田 taught to Wang Zhuangfei
王壮飞, there is Bagua Luohanquan, Wulongquan, etc. The Twelve Road Tantui and
Liantui that Shi Jidong 史计栋 had originally practiced were absorbed into his
system of Baguazhang.

This transmission of Baguazhang material that was
created by Dong Haichuan out of Bafanquan continued to the second and third
generations (taking Dong Haichuan as the first generation). Cui Zhendong 崔振东 of
the Shaolin Wuji school studied from Yin Fu (Cui had also received pointers from
Dong), and Yin Fu incorporated and altered the Shaolinquan that Cui practiced;
thus, the Cui Zhendong bagua passed down by Ji Jinshan 纪晋山 is completely
different from Gong Baotian’s bagua, even though they were both students of Yin
Fu.

Not only were the techniques themselves changed, the name was also
changed, as Yinyang Baguazhang became Baguzahang. This is similar to Guo Weihan
who, after concealing the fundamental training methods of Dai Family Xinyiquan,
called the style that he developed “Xingyiquan” instead of “Xinyi.”

So,
what were these training methods that Dong Haichuan concealed?

When I was
studying Yinyang Baguazhang with Master Liu, I came to deeply understand its
simplicity and depth.

It is a very scientific, methodical system of
training; the most important training method is the first posture, the
“Squeezing Horse” standing posture for body development. One must stand three
years in this posture before learning the second one, just as in Dai Family
Xinyi one must stand in “Squatting Monkey” for three years before learning
footwork. The training progression and requirements have astonishing
similarities [between Dai Xinyi and Yinyang Baguazhang ].

After three
years of Squeezing Horse, the body method requirements (buttocks tucked,
crescent moon, three drawn bows – which are just like the “five bows” in Taiji
and Xinyi) are ingrained.

Next one practices the second posture “Eagle
Overturning,” which specifically trains the waist and shoulder methods; the
third posture “Piercing Palm” trains palm techniques. These are all performed in
a fixed stance without any footwork, standing in Squeezing Horse. Next comes the
first exercise with stepping, but it is not circle-walking; rather, it is
back-and-forth stepping on a straight line, known as “Free Moving Posture,”
which trains kicking techniques.

After this comes circle-walking with the
yin-yang swing/hook steps of the “Earth Basin” posture. Swing/hook [bai/kou]
steps are also called Yin treading and Yang hooking 阴踏阳扣步, and they accompany
the Yin exiting and Yang entering hand movements during circle-walking. These
hand movements are also called “One Palm jin” – the front hand performs the
movement of the third posture “Piercing Palm,” with the palm facing up, and the
back hand is in the “Eagle Overturning” posture, with the palm facing down (this
is different from the posture taught by Dong Haichuan, with both palms facing
downward; the footwork is also very different from the mud-wading step, which
was developed as a result of exchanges with Xingyiquan). This fifth posture is
for practicing footwork (in Wu Taijiquan, the two person wrapping pole,
revolving pole, and pole swinging exercises also use the circular footwork of
Yin treading and Yang hooking; the pole swinging contains the transitions from
seated stance to bow stance, along with the contracting and lengthening of the
body).

The sixth posture is called “Dragon Walking,” and it is for
training the body method. Piercing left and right, it develops the basic
circle-walking footwork to a much deeper level.

The seventh posture is
called “Monkey Leaping”; it trains hand methods based on the foundation of the
“Earth Basin” posture.

The eighth posture is called “Piercing the
Forest”; it is made up of the “Entering the Forest Three Piercing Palms” and the
“Sitting in the Forest” posture as well as the previous seven moves. According
to one’s wishes they may combine and change between these postures freely; the
first seven postures are all components of this eighth posture, which is a
complete integration of all their movements. The free interchange between these
pastures is called “coiling fists and exchanging hands,” 盘拳过手 and is not simply
another palm method. Thus, the eight postures of Yinyang Baguazhang are very
different from Baguazhang ’s eight palms, which are just different palm
techniques performed while walking on the circle.

What Dong Haichuan
concealed was this training progression and its methods. The eight palms that he
taught were nothing more than different palm techniques performed back-and-forth
with the footwork from the fifth posture, “Earth Basin.” Thus, his different
students themselves created different sets of eight palms based on their own
previous experience and individual strengths and weaknesses; yet, this is just a
difference in palm techniques and not in basic methods and training
progressions.

This can be compared to the immediate training of the Five
Element fists in Xingyiquan; in Baguazhang one begins directly by practicing the
basic eight palms (while walking the circle). Thus, Baguazhang and the original
Yinyang Baguazhang (Bapanzhang) differ greatly. This disparity is apparent when
comparing the photos of Ren Zhicheng with those of early Baguazhang
practitioners; whether it is the body method or the use of force, the
differences can be seen clearly.

The techniques of Yinyang Baguazhang
taught by Li Zhenqing are just these few [described above]; after practicing
them from a stationary posture, progressively training the waist, legs, and body
one by one, one then practices the application of these hand techniques, finally
culminating in spontaneous changing of postures with active footwork (“Piercing
the Forest”). This sequential progression shows the tightly-knit, systematic,
and scientific nature of this complete system of martial arts training. Ren
Zhicheng also demonstrated some applications of these techniques with a sequence
of twenty-four two-person postures, as well as such weapons as the 4 foot 2 inch
(~about 1.3m) long saber known as the “Yinyang Bagua Concealed Body Plum Flower
Dewdrop Saber,” and the nine foot (~ 3m) long two-headed spear known as the
“Yinyang Bagua Five Tiger Forest Piercing Spear.”

There is a verse
describing the saber method:

Four foot, two inch eight basin
saber,Its highest techniques are hanging, pushing, relaxing, and
stabbing.If chopping fails, turn it into an advance, and with a single
‘point’Your opponent will have a difficult time avoiding, no matter how fast
he retreats.Upwards cutting and ‘pulling scissor’ all belong to the category
of ‘pointing,’‘Parting the Mane’ protects the legs, cutting like a flood
dragon.Partaking of the wondrous nature of this saber method,On the
brink of battle you will rush forward like a true hero.

A
nine-foot double headed spearIs the king of the eighteen
weapons.“Hanging Dragon” and “Sitting Tiger” are not easily understood by
others,“Shaking the Head” and “Wagging the Tail” will submit your
opponent.The “Cutting and Stabbing” posture is like continuously reeling
silk,Horizontally blocking, you can avoid injury.When you have mastered
the subtleties of this spear method,You can make a name for yourself among
an army of ten thousand men.Altogether there are five techniques: Hanging
Dragon, Sitting Tiger, Pouncing Tiger, Green Dragon Shakes its Head, Green
Dragon Coils its Tail.

These spear and saber methods are extremely
simple; after perfecting them, they can be practiced with an infinite number of
variations.Based on surviving documents, it could be said that Yinyang
Baguazhang has perhaps the most compact and specific curriculum of techniques of
all styles of Chinese martial arts; it is said that “after seven years one can
begin to perfect it.”

The Yinyang Baguazhang taught by Li Zhenqing had no
sixty-four palm routine or any other content.

When we examine the theory
[of Yinyang Baguazhang], the concept of “nine methods one body” 九诀一身 was clearly
influenced by Xinyiquan’s theory of nine nodes. As for its body method and use
of power, the concepts of the “five bows complete in one body,” “silk reeling,”
“soft as cotton,” “relaxed changing,” “monkey leaping,” “cat pouncing,” “tiger
overcoming,” “eagle overturning,” also seem to reflect the body method and
energies of Taijiquan and Xinyiquan. Its footwork methods, such as advance,
retreat, oblique step, horizontal step, coiling, tiptoe, dodge, and revolve, as
well as its skill at swiftly linking these techniques together, also seem to
reflect the influence of Xinyiquan’s footwork, as well as filling in some of its
gaps. In fighting, [Yinyang Baguazhang] uses revolving steps to attack from the
sides, attaining victory by attacking unexpectedly, which corresponds with the
concepts in Xinyiquan and Taijiquan of the “front gate” and the interplay
between straight and oblique.

The first posture [of Yinyang Baguazhang],
Squeezing Horse, trains the dantian qi and body method; the second, Eagle
Overturning, trains oblique and straight, and bending the middle node; the
third, Piercing Palm, specifically trains the ability of the torso, above the
kua, to contract, extend, and lean; the fourth, Free Moving, is very similar to
the “Civet Climbs the Tree” Tiger Pouncing Seize of Zhoukou Xinyiliuhequan.
(Zhoukou does not raise the leg higher than the knee, and specializes in
striking the shins and knees head-on; the hand method used is the “Tiger
Pouncing Seize,” with both palms cutting upwards; as for the Free Moving
posture, in addition to raising the foot to strike the shin and knees, the
height of the kick can be varied, striking the dantian, solar plexus, breast,
chin, etc., similar to the “Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg” move in Wu style
Taijiquan, and the Free Moving posture uses a “Tiger Overcoming” downward palm
strike.)

The fifth technique of Yinyang Baguazhang, the Earth Basin
posture, uses the Yin treading and Yang hooking footwork to walk a circle, in
which the heel of the foot touches the ground first, followed by the sole of the
foot; these are the variations of yin and yang in the motions of the foot.
Disguised in these stepping methods are the techniques of “Wind Scraping the
Earth” and the cutting kick, as well as stamping. This is exactly like the
“stamping leg” method of Xinyi Liuhequan; it is almost simply just “stamping
leg” performed on a circle, and is completely unlike the stepping method of
Baguazhang which, with its evenly raising and lowering of the foot, lacks the
variations of yin and yang.

(Note: According to the chapter “History of
Xingyiquan” in the book “Baoding Zhongxue Xingyi quanshu jiangyi” written in
1934 by Liu Weixiang 刘纬祥, student of the famous Xingyiquan master Guo Yunshen
郭云深, “during the Guangxu period, nearly forty years ago, I along with my sworn
brothers – Taijiquan practitioner Liu Dekuan, Baguazhang expert Cheng Tinghua,
Xingyiquan experts Li Cunyi 李存义, Di Xushan 耿继善, and others – gathered in Beijing
and discussed the idea of combining the three styles Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and
Xingyiquan into one family. On that day we eliminated the boundaries and broke
down the barriers between these styles; anyone practicing one of these styles
would also be learning the other two, and we taught and learned from each other
simultaneously. Every time we would get together there would be dozens in
attendance.” It was only after this that the “mud-wading step” arose in
Baguazhang.)

If we say that the circle-walking of the fifth posture,
Earth Basin, is a fundamental footwork exercise like Xinyi Liuhequan’s “Stamping
Chicken” or “Strolling Chicken” steps, then the sixth posture of Yinyang
Baguazhang, Dragon Walking, can be compared to Xinyi Liuhequan’s “Dragon
Walking” and “Chicken Walking” steps – a deeper elaboration of the basic
footwork methods. Although the main footwork pattern in this posture follows an
S-shape (not a circle), there are no limitations on its variations – horizontal,
straight, dodging and leaping, interchanging effortlessly in all directions,
overturning and revolving, advancing, piercing, and charging – almost as if it
came from the same source as Xinyi Liuhequan’s “Dragon Walking,” tiptoe step,
and “twisting-overturning lesser opening” 拧翻小拓; there are only differences in
the hand techniques used and the execution. At the same time, the hand movements
used in this sixth posture closely resemble Xinyi Liuhequan’s “Contracting Body
Single Seizing.”

Thus, I have come to the following conclusions regarding
Yinyang Baguazhang:

1.) Its creator was a Daoist hermit, who had
connections with anti-Qing secret societies.2.) Its place of origin was in
Henan, in the area on both sides of the Yellow River near Luoyang, Jiyuan,
Bo’ai, and Wen County.3.) The style was formed sometime during the Qianlong
period.4.) Theory: It borrowed some theoretical aspects from
Xinyiquan.5.) Techinques: Its techniques seem to show some surviving
connection with Xinyi.6.) Its creator quite possibly could have been
familiar with both Taijiquan and Xinyi Liuhequan.

(Note: Baguazhang was
formed sometime during the Tongzhi period [1861-1875])

Because Yinyang
Baguazhang is a little-known style, and its founder’s name was never revealed
due to its connections with secret societies, there are several who have
confounded its history with misleading statements.

The first of these
concerns the birth and death of Dong Haichuan and Li Zhenqing.

There are
many who have claimed that Dong was in his eighties when he passed
away.

Dong Haichuan died in the winter of Guangxu 8 (1882); there are no
discrepancies between this date and historical materials. It is recorded that
Yin Fu and others gathered in spring of Guanxu 9 to set up the first memorial
stele for Dong; from this we can see that the date is not a mistake.

As
for the year of his birth, the article “Remembering Martial Arts Master Dong,”
published in 1932, issue five of the Beijing “Physical Education Monthly,”
states that Dong was “at the age of 66” when he passed away (placing his birth
in 1816).

The evidence cited is this: Dong came to Beijing in Tongzhi 4
(1863) and began accepting students in Tongzhi 6 (1865), when he was in his
fifties. This accords with the “Anecdotes of Yin Fu,” which states that, when
Yin studied Baguazhang with Dong, “Master Dong, in his fifties, would sit
cross-legged on the furnace.”

Yu Hui’s book “Bagua zhuanzhang huilan”
states that “Master [Dong] came to the North in Tongzhi 4.”

Li Ziming’s
“Baguazhang wutong” states, “after the patriarch of Baguazhang, around the age
of fifty, came to Beijing around 1870, he began accepting students.”

That
Dong was 66 [when he died] is correct; thus, his dates were 1816-1882.

As
for Li Zhenqing: according to the materials from the lineages of Xiao Haibo and
Ren Zhicheng, Li Zhenqing was born around 1830, and died in 1900 when he was
shot by the armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance; thus, his dates are 1830-1900.
Li Zhenqing’s return to Hebei, when he began teaching, would have been after
1870. Had Liu Baozhen begun studying with him then, since it required “seven
years to begin perfecting,” he would have finished his studies around 1880, when
he would have returned to the capital to study with Dong Haichuan; this
corresponds with the statement that “Dong was already in his later years,” as he
passed away in 1882.

However, Mr. Kang Gewu, in order to complete his MA
thesis on martial arts, arbitrarily stated that Li Zhenqing was born in 1855.
Consider that Ren Zhicheng, in his Introduction, states that “I loved to study
martial arts as a child; I began learning at age 13, and my teacher Li was
already in his seventies.” Even if he was exaggerating by saying “in his
seventies,” and it is more reasonable to place Li in his sixties (as Dong
Haichuan in his sixties was already considered “in his later years), Ren
Zhicheng would have been thirteen in the year 1890, at which time Li Zhenqing
would have been sixty; thus, Ren’s account corresponds with the dates above. If
we follow Kang Gewu’s theory, then in 1890 Li Zhenqing would have been
thirty-five; would it not have been absurd for Ren to say that he was “in his
seventies?” The basis of Kang Gewu’s theory is unscientific, and it is difficult
not to wonder if, for the purpose of producing a “convincing thesis,” he did not
change the facts himself; thus, it is not credible.

In order to achieve
his goal, Mr. Kang specifically related a certain story: “In 1900, Li Zhenqing
joined up with the Boxers who were attacking the foreign occupiers. Because he
had been nearsighted since childhood, at one point he saw a group of men
entering the village, and mistakenly believed them to be the Boxer army. He
approached them, yelling ‘Brothers!’ Not realizing that they were foreign
troops, he was shot down in the street by their guns.” This kind of deliberate
defamation of Li Zhenqing is just like those Chen villagers who say that “Yang
Luchan was an old invalid who learned Taijiquan to alleviate his illness, and
had no real gongfu.” Imagine, a prominent martial artist, who was known as
“Sparrowhawk Li” because he could jump up and catch flying birds – how could he
be incapable of recognizing a company of foreign troops, innumerable times
larger than a single flying bird? Claiming to have heard such a story from
“someone who lived in that village,” in order to disparage Li Zhenqing – this
most certainly is another of Mr. Kang’s fabrications.

In addition,
martial artists in these times prized the teacher-student relationship above all
else. Would Li Zhenqing’s direct disciples such as Liu Baozhen, Xiao Haibo, Ren
Shunan, Ren Zhicheng, andother, not be capable of remembering such details about
their own teacher? Imagine if Yin Fu or Cheng Tinghua were unable to remember
clearly who their teacher was, could such a thing be possible? If Li Zhenqing
were not a Yinyang Baguazhang practitioner, but instead practiced Shaolinquan,
why would Xiao Haibo and Ren Zhicheng claim to have been his students? They
would at least have claimed to be from Dong’s lineage; otherwise, how could
their boxing styles be so similar?

Moreover, if we look at the book
written by Guo Zhenya, Liu Baozhen’s grand-disciple, if Liu Baozhen had not
actually claimed to have studied from both Li Zhenqing and Dong Haichuan, then
why would Guo Zhenya have fabricated the involvement of Li Zhenqing, who was
nowhere near as well-known as Dong Haichuan? This simply would not make sense.
Guo’s book explains very clearly that Liu Baozhen and his student Guo Mengshen
were both men who respected their teachers and adhered to moral values, and Guo
Zhenya also followed this tradition.

Third, when I myself was studying
martial arts in my younger years, I studied under Ji Jinshan, the skilled
disciple of Cui Zhendong, and also visited with Gong Baotian’s disciple Wang
Zhuangfei and Master Lu Zijian 吕紫剑 of Sichuan. They all told me that Dong
Haichuan had learned from a Daoist hermit, just as it is said that Xinyiquan
ancestor Ma Xueli 马学礼 learned from a hermit.

Dong Haichuan’s nephew
Liangcheng came to the capital several times, accompanied by his son Bangqing,
to visit his uncle Dong Haichuan, and Bangqing always said that his great-uncle
had learned from “a transcendent” in the Xuehua mountains, and never named his
teacher. This is known by all the members of his village (and has been verified
by Bangqing’s grandson Dong Shaoqin 董绍勤).

In addition to all of this, the
statements of Dong’s first generation of students are the most authoritative. On
his memorial stele, it states:

1.) Stele inscription of Guangxu 9 (1883):
“His surname was Dong and his given name Haichuan, and he came from Zhujiawu to
the south of Wen’an…. When he reached adulthood, he traveled far and wide,
passing through the Wuyue (Shanghai, Zhejiang) and Ba/Shu (Sichuan) regions,
visiting famous mountains in search of skilled people, in order to gain some
worldly experience. Later, he met a yellow capped [Daoist] who taught him
martial arts, and he became adept at boxing.”

2.) Stele inscription of
Guangxu 30 (1904): “Master Dong… was visiting friends in the region of Anhui,
when he became lost in the mountains…. A Daoist, robust with a childlike face
and white hair, said to him, ‘Why have you come so late?’ Thereupon Dong learned
methods of attack, advancing, and retreating, and the skills of cultivating the
spirit and directing the qi. Every one of his teachings was new and unheard
of.”

Neither of these stele inscriptions contain the word “founder,”
“creator,” or “creation.”Although the second stele was erected over twenty
years after the first, it still maintains the story that Dong learned from a
Daoist while traveling in the South.

Both of these steles were erected by
Dong’s senior disciple Yin Fu, the most reliable source, and they are the most
authoritative documents providing information on Dong Haichuan’s life, as well
as the primary sources for researchers of the history of Baguazhang. They
correlate with the account of Dong’s nephew, who heard from him that Dong
learned from a “transcendent,” and prove that Dong never claimed to have created
Baguazhang; he himself also said that he had learned it from a Daoist, and his
first-, second-, and third-generation disciples all maintained this tradition.
Sun Lutang 孙禄堂 in his 1916 book “The Study of Baguaquan” stated that “We do not
know who created Baguaquan, but I have heard that Dong Haichuan… learned from an
extraordinary stranger when traveling in Anhui.”

The story that Dong had
learned in the Jiuhua mountains was first seen in the 1930 stele erected by Ma
Gui 马贵 and others.

In 1932, Jiang Rongqiao 姜容樵 wrote “Taiji Bagua zhikao
2,” based on the fabrications of Zhang Xiangwu 张骧伍 and Ding Qirui丁齐锐
(subordinates of Li Jinglin 李景林) and here we find the first mention of the names
Bi Yunxia 毕云霞, Bi Yuexia避月侠, Be Dengxia 毕灯侠, etc.

At the same time, the
name of Guo Jiyuan 郭济元 was also mentioned.

Moreover, they also claimed
that Wudang swordsman Song Weiyi 宋唯一 (who learned during the Guangxu period from
Zhang Yehe 张野鹤) was a junior classmate of Dong Haichuan, mixing up the figures
of Song Weiyi and Li Zhenqing. Li Zhenqing did once visit the capital to see
Dong, when he was an official in the palace; Dong was so unwelcoming towards his
junior classmate, and his students never knew that they the famous “Sparrowhawk
Li” as their martial uncle. This demonstrates that Dong was keeping a huge
secret, which was the mission that brought him to the capital; thus, he was
unwilling to let others know, so he quickly drove his junior classmate away, and
never mentioned that he had received such a visit.

Fourth, Kang claims
that “Liu Baozhen only studied from Dong Haichuan.” Yet both the documents from
Liu Baozhen’s disciples and the visible flavor of his boxing style prove that
this statement of Kang’s is just wishful thinking.

Kang has also
conjectured that Xiao Haibo and Ren Zhicheng had learned from Liu Baozhen. Would
a martial artist at that time violate the principles of respecting one’s teacher
and traditional morality, and so make the claim that his teacher was a different
person, or claim that his teacher was actually his senior classmate? This theory
is preposterous.

Fifth, most importantly, are the theoretical and
compositional aspects of the boxing styles. Yinyang Baguazhang is simple and
refined, and its training methods follow a strict progression. How could Xiao
Haibo or Ren Zhicheng have learned Liu Baozhen’s complicated system of
Baguazhang and refined it in such a manner? If they had been able to perform
such a feat, would they not have been even more skilled than Dong Haichuan
himself?

This is clearly illogical. For the simple, essential techniques
of Yinyang Baguazhang to be diluted and developed into the complex system of
Baguazhang is just like Dai Family Xinyiquan being transformed into Xingyiquan;
this is a logical and scientific progression, and this fact cannot be
purposefully ignored in an attempt to reach a certain conclusion.

Dong
certainly was the creator of Baguazhang, but he was not the creator of Yinyang
Baguazhang.

Sixth, Kang writes that: Ren Zhicheng’s disciple, Mr. Gao
Zhikai 高植楷 (b. 1906) [who helped Ren Zhicheng write his book], on 12-12-1980,
wrote a letter to Kang Gewu stating that, “Because of the publication of [Sun
Xikun’s] ‘Baguazhang zhen chuan,’ we entitled our book ‘Yinyang Bapanzhang.’”
This does not mean that Ren Zhicheng’s style was originally called Baguazhang or
Baguaquan; it just demonstrates that it was called Yinyang Baguazhang, and in
order to distinguish it from Baguazhang or Baguaquan, they changed the name to
Yinyang Bapanzhang. They did not simply call it Bapanzhang because they could
not omit the words Yin and Yang from the title, which demonstrates the
importance of those concepts to this style.

Seventh, naturally, Mr. Kang
Gewu’s work has made some important contributions; for example he has debunked
several myths, such as Feng Keshan’s “Eight Direction Steps and Li Trigram,” Niu
Liangchen’s “Kan Trigram” and Tian Hui’s separate branch of Bagua.

At the
same time, Mr. Kang also discovered the relationship between Dong’s Baguazhang
and the Bafanzhang that he practiced as a youth. These are important
contributions made by Kang; yet for one to refute the evidence concerning the
founder and lineage of Yinyang Baguazhang, for the sole purpose of finishing a
master’s thesis, is unacceptable. Although Mr Kang is a practitioner of of
Baguazhang, yet he should still not be narrow-minded; what is most unacceptable
is to turn one man’s conjectures into the fixed position of the national
physical education division, and to suppress any competing viewpoints.

We
must remember the lesson of the [now-debunked] belief that “Chen Wangting
created Chen Taijiquan”; only then can we restore some truth to our historical
accounts, for the sake of the great masters of the past.